"McCampbell's Heroes: The Story of the U.S. Navy's Most Celebrated Carrier Fighters of the Pacific War" is a concise, comprehensive, and well-written account of a distinguished combat unit as only Edwin P. Hoyt could do. Indeed, this is the fifth book from him that I've had the pleasure of reading.

In 13 chapters, Hoyt shares with the reader the history of Air Group Fifteen (aka "The Fabled Fifteen") from its inception during the summer of 1943 through its extensive training regimen stateside (which was not without loss, given wartime pressures and the desire of pilots in training to perfect and sharply hone their skills), to its deployment in the Pacific in May 1944, where it drew first blood on escort missions against the Japanese occupied Marcus and Wake Islands. The U.S. carrier force by this stage of the Pacific War had grown by leaps and bounds since the critical days of late 1941 and 1942, when the U.S. Navy struggled to contain the full force of the Japanese war machine. Carrier groups made up of both heavy carriers and light or escort carriers, with their protective screen of destroyers, cruisers, battleships, and an array of support ships now freely roamed the Pacific.

Between May and November 1944, when it completed its combat tour, Air Group Fifteen (as part of Carrier Air Group 15) took part in the Battles of the Philippine Sea, the invasions of Saipan, the Mariana Islands and Guam, attacks on Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and Formosa. And to top it off, the "Fabled Fifteen" further distinguished themselves through the invaluable assistance they gave to U.S. ground and air forces during the liberation of the Philippines and the crucial Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the greatest naval engagements ever fought which witnessed the virtual destruction of Japanese naval power in the Pacific.

For the reader who likes to read stories in which the combat records of soldiers, sailors, and airmen are related in breathtaking detail, there are lots of such stories here in "McCampbell's Heroes." David McCampbell himself survived the war as the U.S. Navy's top ace, with 34 aerial victories to his credit. In one action during the Leyte Gulf battle told in considerable detail in the book, McCampbell and his wingman took on a large number of enemy planes in a series of intense dogfights. McCampbell managed to shoot down 9 Japanese planes (while his wingman got 6) -- a record for a single mission --- and upon returning stateside, was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Roosevelt in the White House in January 1945.

All in all, "McCampbell's Heroes" is a fantastic book which any reader --- from the most casual to the most passionate of aviation enthusiasts --- will savor and cherish.

Edwin P. Hoyt provides in "TO THE MARIANAS: War in the Central Pacific, 1944" an apt and comprehensive summation of the crucial battles in the Central Pacific -- as waged in the Marshalls and Marianas Islands between late January and August 1944.

Both island groups were regarded by Japan (who had occupied them since the end of World War I; the one exception was Guam, which Japan had seized from the U.S. in December 1941) as key in defending the heart of its empire. For the U.S., with its growing naval and air power, it was an imperative to conquer both the Marshalls and the Marianas (along with the retaking of Guam) and use them as bases for bringing the war to Japan itself. Hoyt shows a remarkable knowledge of the series of campaigns -- e.g. Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Saipan, Tinian, and Guam -- which decimated a large part of the Japanese naval and air power in the region til it was little more than a shadow of the colossus which had swept across Southeast Asia and the Pacific in 1941-42. For anyone seeking a general history of the Pacific War, I highly recommend reading this book.

I’ve already read a number of Edwin P. Hoyt’s short histories of various military operations of the Second World War.   This particular book – “STORM OVER THE GILBERTS: War in the Central Pacific, 1943” – offers a concise and comprehensive account of a campaign aimed at further eroding the capacity of Imperial Japan for offensive warfare against the Allies in the Pacific.     The reader becomes a witness to the planning, development, and execution --- from various angles (e.g.the U.S. Army, Navy & Marine senior commanders, the political and military chiefs in Washington, and the various levels of the Japanese naval and air command structures) --- of the invasion of the Gilbert Islands in November 1943.     Hoyt has an unerring skill for providing as complete a picture of the unfolding and playing out of a battle or campaign as possible.     This is a book that will appeal to the general reader, as well as the student of the Pacific War. 

One of the findings from the outcome of the Gilberts campaign that I found especially eye-opening was the feeling by many of the Navy and Marine combatants that the campaign was a waste.  (The Battle of Tarawa was one of the bloodiest battles in Marine Corps history, costing the Corps nearly 1,000 dead in 3 days of fighting.)   It was their contention that the Marshall Islands to the northwest (where the great Japanese naval base at Truk was situated) should have been invaded first.    Hoyt, reflecting the views of senior commanders like Nimitz, Spruance, Marshall, and King, states that “[t]he reality was that the Gilberts operation was ‘training,’  and little more than that.  Nonetheless it was essential, for until the Americans had been trained, until the Fifth Fleet had been welded into a fighting force, it might have been suicidal to send it against a stronger bastion.”   

A heavy cost was exacted in the Gilberts.   But the sacrifice “paved the way for the whole drive across the Central Pacific” in 1944.   Hoyt has crafted yet another terrific book.

Once again Edwin P. Hoyt has given the reader a concise, comprehensive, and intelligently written book. This time, he concerns himself mainly with the crucial Battle for Guadalcanal, which was the first offensive action by the Americans against the might of the Imperial Japanese military in the Pacific War.

From the landing of the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal Island on August 7, 1942 to Japan's defeat there in February 1943, the battle seesawed back and forth. The Japanese, at the outset of the Guadalcanal campaign, had all the advantages in terms of airpower, seapower, and experience. But their leadership tended to underestimate the fighting ability of the Americans, as well as their resourcefulness and determination to hold out against what was overwhelming odds during the early months of the battle.

What I also found revelatory the more I read "War in the Pacific, Vol 3: South Pacific" was how often at times the Japanese Army and Navy worked independently of each other throughout the battle and at times at cross purposes against each other. Both did not work well together. The Army had a very high opinion of itself, which was considerably inflated during the early months of the Pacific War with the swift victories against U.S., British, Dutch and Allied forces. Where an infantry division could have secured decisive results on Guadalcanal against the Marines, Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo and the senior Army leadership in Rabaul (the main Japanese base in the South Pacific) would send a regiment to do the job. For after all, one Japanese soldier was equal to ten American marines!

The book also goes into detail in explaining to the reader the remaining battles in the Central Solomon Islands that took place from the Spring to the autumn of 1943. These were crucial months that saw the gradual diminution in Japanese air and seapower as the Americans (Army, Navy, and Marines) gained experience and were able to commit greater and greater numbers of soldiers, planes, and ships against Japan. So much so that, by the spring of 1944, with Rabaul now isolated by American forces, the U.S. was now in a position to take the war to the heart of the Japanese Empire.

Edwin P. Hoyt has done a masterful job of conveying to the reader, inasmuch as possible, the full story of the early days of the Pacific War (December 1941-May 1942) in which the Imperial Japanese military (ground, air, and naval units) was able to sweep aside long established Western ascendancy in the Far East and Pacific. For a Mass Market paperback book packed with so much detail and replete with lots of stirring, heartbreaking, and inspiring eyewitness accounts of sacrifice, defeat, and small victories, it is brilliant. It is also highly readable, so much so that the average layperson will enjoy reading this history.

Like many people with an interest in the Second World War, my focus has tended to be on the European phase of the conflict. But in recent years, I have become curious about the Pacific War, which was fought on and over islands spanning thousands of miles of ocean, and on into China, Burma, and Southeast Asia. Thus I bought this book a few months ago to help add to my understanding of that struggle.

In the main, "The Lonely Ships" is the story of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet and its efforts - along with its Dutch and British allies -- to hold back the steady tide of the Japanese advance from the Philippines, to Malaya & Singapore, and on to the Dutch East Indies (modern day Indonesia) and Western New Guinea. Sadly, this fleet was allowed to lapse into neglect between the wars, because Washington opted to keep military spending to a bare mininum. Only towards the late 1930s - in light of the growing threat presented by Hitler and Japanese militarism - was military spending allowed to increase. Indeed, by the time Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and embarked on its own blitzkrieg in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, the U.S. Asiatic Fleet was ill-suited to meet the challenges now placed before it. “ …[F]rom the beginning , all that could be expected from the Western naval powers was a holding action: to serve while the powers at home got their wits about them, examined their resources, and decided what those priorities must be. All the while the men in the field fought the Japanese, destroyed the resources they could not protect, and retreated with as much cost to the enemy as they could exact.”

I highly recommend this book to both history enthusiasts and general readers alike.